The last thing I ever expected to hear over an intercom at Barnes and Noble was the surreal announcement, "local author Kay Fellows is signing her travel book "Upper Mississippi Valley by Motorcycle" at a table near the mall entrance." …
For me, the road to working for myself as a freelance writer was a lot easier than I had anticipated. During my senior year at The University of South Florida, I was a staff writer for our student newspaper and also a writing tutor at our library. However, I was looking for more. I wanted to find a way to quit my job working behind the counter at a grocery store, and start really making my writing pay. …
My first book was very close to being finished in July 2004. Its proposal had even sparked some superficial interest from a handful of publishers; but it was at a standstill. …
Remember the theme song from Cheers that talks about everybody knowing your name? I like to frequent places where I can network with fellow writers. …
Writers can be full of excuses on why they don't write - there's not enough time, I don't have the correct software, I'm not organized enough, etc. I'm proof positive that there is no valid excuse for not writing, regardless of your circumstances. …
Three years ago, I arranged my life to support the financial and emotional needs of a serious writing career: I moved from city to country, reducing my mortgage by seventy-five percent; sold my new car and paid cash for a used one; stopped eating at restaurants and started shopping at thrift stores. I was prepared to live on the small income my writing produced. But I wasn't producing any writing. …
Somehow, McFarland has just awakened to the existence of the book (maybe from the endorsement by Rush Limbaugh) that I recently self-published through BookLocker. It is The Keeper of the Flame: The Supreme Court Opinions of Justice Clarence Thomas. They offered me a contract for the book. I'm delighted, of course, for all the usual reasons, and especially because now the book will get into many, many libraries throughout the United States... …
How many of us are fortunate enough to transform our (safe) compulsions/obsessions into the start of a passionate vocation? …
If you have seen the movie, Last Holiday, with Queen Latifah, then you know how the main character, Georgia Byrd, makes a book of where she wants to be someday in her life. In her scrapbook titled Possibilities, Georgia includes pictures of a future cooking career and of a future husband. She likes a fellow store worker, so his picture goes into the cutout of a groom on the wedding page with her as the bride. She does several things in order for her dreams to come true. Trying to crack the current fiction market is a realistic dream for many of us and can be accomplished if we make our own book of possibilities. …
A few years ago when I finally made the leap into freelance writing, I couldn't imagine my need for a website. For one thing, in the early stages I didn't actually have any samples or much content to put on a website. For another, I wasn't sure I could afford the investment. But likely one of my greatest fears was that I knew, if I had a website, people might actually visit it! …
There had always been parents, teachers, and bosses to care whether I did my chores, assignments, and projects. There were consequences--for me and for them--if I didn't do what I was supposed to do. But writing is different. …
How do you use WritersWeekly.com's paying markets section? Does the magazine's title and your knowledge (or lack of) of a particular niche determine whether or not you read the guidelines? If you've never lived on a ranch and don't know any cowboys, do you bypass the guidelines for RANGE magazine? Do you dissect and ruminate over every word in Purposeful Women? Sure you do; you're human. We all like to write about our areas of expertise, and some of us refuse to tackle anything beyond. What's the payoff for never leaving our comfort zone? Less challenge, fewer writing assignments, and smaller income. I know what I'm talking about because I've been there, done that. …
Okay, I admit it. I don't consider myself worthy of the title "writer". The concept makes me just a bit uncomfortable and I'll tell you why. …
For the past twenty years, I have had a regular newspaper column somewhere. The papers have changed and so have the subjects but I have held a steady place as a newspaper columnist. Meeting weekly deadlines and writing tight copy helped hone my skills as a writer. I've yet to have an editor turn down a proposed column by doing my homework before making the pitch. Here's how... …
From the very moment I learnt to read, I decided I wanted to be a writer. As a kid, I rode along on my bike, notebook and pen in the front basket, stopping every few minutes to make a note of my big ideas. When we visited my grandparents, I wouldn't get in the car to go home until I'd written my grandma another story. …
When my daughter arrived last July, my work product stagnated. Adjusting to my new role as a parent took some wind out of my freelance sails and sales! Imagine my delight when an online pet magazine editor contacted me with an offer of a one-year feature article contract. …
The first thing needed to successfully sell books is an efficient infrastructure; an internal support system that will allow you to move comfortably in the field without worry about delivery and quality of your book. I do not know what other publishers offer. I do know that Angela and her team at Booklocker.com provide excellent service in this area. Fifteen years as a Financial Advisor, I know very well that the "back office" needs to work or you can be left feeling pretty silly in the public eye. …
I like to collect things and I design and sell paper models as a hobby business and I have often sold them on eBay. At some point, I got a Toy collectibles book and was going through it checking out the value of toys I had as a kid and I came across "PEP" pins. PEP was a Kellogg's cereal in the 40's (before my time). They gave away lithographed pins of comic book characters in each box. They looked fun and, at the time, available, so I started collecting via eBay. …
I've read about authors selling their books on eBay over the years. However, I was naturally skeptical. With all the books available on that site, what are the chances a buyer will find your book and buy it? Under which category do you post it? How does it work? How much does eBay charge? How could you possibly make a profit from doing this? …
There are many ways to make a lot of money from print on demand (POD) books, especially in niche markets. Because of the low setup costs and quick turnaround time, POD printing can be used to produce books in situations where it was not possible to produce them before. One example of this is in college courses where, before, there might have been only a course packet, jumble of handouts, or nothing at all. …
On New Year's Eve in 1994, I gave birth to a baby girl and a new business. Crazy, yes, but it was something I had to do. Determined to be a stay-at-home-mom, I began to make my living as a home-based publicist and freelance writer. This was especially challenging since I was an orphaned single mom with no one to help me. I had to figure out a way to raise my child and earn a living in an environment that catered to both. Thank God for the Internet! …
"You're famous!" I had to smile at my nine year old grandson's conclusion. We had been looking at a scrapbook I'd put together containing newspaper interviews and press releases for my recent book, When Canada Joined Cape Breton. In reality I'm far from famous but some amazing things have happened since the morning a few years ago when I told myself, "I'll never know until I try." …
I'm not sure how to explain the appeal of searching for documents and details about one's ancestors, but it seems undeniable that the pull is there. I've fallen into the "hobby" of family history research, myself (starting with a first visit to the National Archives during a trip to Washington when I was a teenager), and I'm certainly not alone. …
Several years ago I had some time on my hands. I was trapped in working in a mental health agency that was dysfunctional. I was merely one of many therapist…
Yes, we all know the old adage to "write what you know," but sometimes it's tough to apply in our hum-drum lives. If your day consists of sitting at a desk, with quick trips to the kitchen for Chai tea (as mine does, and yours might, also), there may not seem very many things in your life that editors would be willing to pay for. Still, my career is all about writing what I live. …
I've been here before. My feet perch precariously on the homemade wooden platform. The ground looks a million miles below me. I clutch the rough hemp of the thick rope and wrap my legs around the large knot near the end. I take a breath and jump... …
I began freelance writing as a temporary measure, to help Husband support our five young children. I had noticed that whenever I wrote an irate Letter to the Editor at the Chicago Tribune, it was always published. (In those days, it took little to rev me to irate status.) I realized that if I added a few hundred words, and called it a "guest editorial," there might be the possibility of a check arriving at some point. …
Some say that the three most important aspects of starting a retail business are location...location...location. By the same token, a successful author might adhere to the same concept with, marketing...marketing...marketing! …
A few weeks ago I noticed an article in WritersWeekly by Jimmy Moore in which he talked about how blogging was helping him build a market for his book. The piece rang a bell for me because it closely parallels my experience with podcasting. The American Oxford Dictionary declared "podcast" to be its word of the year for 2005. In a little over a year, the technology went from non-existent to hosting thousands of shows (National Public Radio alone puts out 234 podcasts). …
Ever wonder how a guy gets a job like this? Lots of people seem to because it is one of the number one question people ask when they see me at the events I attend. Everyone wants to know, "How do you get a job like this?" Everyone from Brenda, the cute little waitress from Gaylord who loves snowmobile racing, to many of the racers and race crews even. A lot of people seem to want to do what I do. …
I can't sleep. I tell you people, I just can't sleep. I'm 38 years old and I don't remember a time when I wasn't afflicted with insomnia. And I don't remember a time when I didn't lull myself to sleep by rolling a sort of mental movie through my head, a storyline that overrides the noise of real world clamor in my head. For nearly four decades, I've been sinking into sleep with fictional characters running amok in my thoughts. …
Inspiration hits at weird times. For me, it was at the gas pump. …
It was 1965 and, at a time when most of my contemporaries were grooving up on the Beatles, I was a teenage folksinger--and proud of it! When I went to the recently built Seattle Opera House to catch Ian and Sylvia, Josh White, and my hometown's own Brothers Four in one glorious show, it was one of the most memorable musical experiences of my young life. Unfortunately, the critic whose review appeared the following morning in a local paper was considerably less enthralled. …
